Russians have more media freedom on Telegram than EU citizens – Durov
The EU imposes more media restrictions on Telegram than Russia does, the platform’s founder, Pavel Durov, has noted in a New Year’s message.
“Access to certain Russian media has been restricted in the EU under DSA/sanctions laws. Meanwhile, all Western media Telegram channels remain freely accessible in Russia,” Durov wrote on the platform on Tuesday, referring to the EU’s Digital Services Act.
“Who would have thought that in 2025 Russian Telegram users would enjoy more freedom than Europeans?” he added.
The EU imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian media after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. Outlets like RT, Sputnik, and RIA Novosti have all been banned across the bloc, while their personnel have been targeted with sanctions. As individual member states are tasked with forcing web providers to enforce these bans, their imposition has been staggered across states and platforms.
As of Sunday, RIA Novosti, Izvestia, Rossiya 1, Channel One, NTV and other major Russian outlets were reported as inaccessible on Telegram in multiple countries, including Poland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, and the Czech Republic.
“We perceive this new act of political censorship by countries of the neo-liberal West as a formalization of their line to suppress any manifestations of dissent,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. “The Russian side will certainly respond to these and other similar attacks on Russian media outlets.”
Durov’s post on Tuesday was his first statement on the matter. He has faced significant legal challenges this year. The Russian entrepreneur, who is also a citizen of France, the UAE, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, was detained after landing at a Paris airport in August and released on bail several days later. He faces 12 criminal charges, including complicity in distributing child pornography, drug dealing, and money laundering.
French prosecutors claim that Telegram’s supposedly lax moderation rules have enabled rampant criminality to flourish on the platform.
Durov was “too slow [to react to] or did not listen at all to Western advice about the so-called moderation of his brainchild,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the CEO’s arrest. “The West does not pull any punches” when dealing with online platforms like Telegram, he added.
